Meet Tony Soprano, aka Barack Obama We all know what the fictional New Jersey mob chief does to his political opponents: He kills them. Just ask his former partner Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero, or the young Matthew Bevelaqua, two of the eight men Tony whacks during the show’s seven seasons. Challenging this dubious record, the […]

Stop The Presses. A Retraction! We got slightly carried away in last week’s report when we patted ourselves on the back for eight years of peaceful, consistent protest by claiming JWPF was “the only game in town”. We stand corrected. As Protester (and sometimes vigiler) L proudly informs us: Standing in public dissent against violent, […]

Eight Years and Going Strong Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends will celebrate its eighth anniversary of bringing its messages of justice and peace in Palestine to the streets of Ann Arbor. We’re hoping to have a larger than usual turnout for Saturday, October 8th, so if you’ve ever considered joining one of the longest-lasting, […]

Orwell Lives! Rabbi Dobrusin Designated Vice-Chair of RHR-NA Rabbis for Human Rights – North America has welcomed Beth Israel’s Rabbi Rob Dobrusin as its new vice chair. Think about it: RHR-NA claims to be an organization that “acts on the Jewish imperative to respect and protect the human rights of all people” while supporting a […]

Why the First Amendment Is Valued For almost eight years members of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends (JWPF) have exercised the individual and collective free speech rights guaranteed by the US Constitution. Early on, this writer would time and again confuse the applicability of the First Amendment by alerting our legal counsel that his […]

Criticism or Flattery? You Decide Brought to our attention by friend and sometime-vigiler S, we find a so-far unknown source in Ann Arbor with a gift for an Onion-type wit. From the website http://newsofannarbor.blogspot.com/. We find: Monday, August 8, 2011 Protesters convince synagogue to boycott, denounce Israel After regularly protesting outside the Beth Israel synagogue […]

The South Rises This writer took his pre-conceived notions about our red-state neighbors to the south and, as Johnny Cash says, “came away with a different point of view”. This turning point came at Floydfest , a four-day musical festival (July 28-31, held 5 miles south of Floyd, Virginia, and adjacent to mile post 175 […]